philippines may pull a surprise.
they have a bunch of guys with pinay moms and british dads that play in england (although most not at a high level, but still higher than anythign in the philippines)
fifa world ranking?????????/
not only is it a joke but 83 isn't exactly high
also, uzbekistan had a real bad showing in the final round of qualification the last time around. it's a shame, because they came close to making it to the playoff in 2005.
they did well in the asian cup though, so maybe they have a shot this time around.
qatar already did the buying foreigners thing, and it didn't work.
when they went really out of their way to find a merc like ailton, fifa stopped them.
i wouldn't worry about that.
north korea???
nobody wants to see them lose 7-0 again .
iran has had good players, but they seem to have fallen off.
their most noticeable player owuld be shatskikh. he spent ten years at dynamo kiev and is their leading scorer.
many of their players play for bunyudkor, who's won the last three titles and had some good runs in the asian champions league.
looking at these fixtures reminds me of playing fifa road to the world cup 98 and qualifying with a bunch of horrible teams.